Sagittarius A is a complex radio source at the center of the Milky Way, which contains a supermassive black hole. It is located
between Scorpius and Sagittarius, and is hidden from view at optical wavelengths by large clouds of cosmic dust in the spiral arms of the Milky Way. The dust lane that obscures the Galactic Center from a vantage point around the Sun causes the Great Rift through the bright bulge of the galaxy.
Surface brightness and velocity field of the inner part of Sagittarius A West
The supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope
The Galactic Center is the barycenter of the Milky Way and a corresponding point on the rotational axis of the galaxy. Its central massive object is a supermassive black hole of about 4 million solar masses, which is called Sagittarius A*, a compact radio source which is almost exactly at the galactic rotational center. The Galactic Center is approximately 8 kiloparsecs (26,000 ly) away from Earth in the direction of the constellations Sagittarius, Ophiuchus, and Scorpius, where the Milky Way appears brightest, visually close to the Butterfly Cluster (M6) or the star Shaula, south to the Pipe Nebula.
The Galactic Center, as seen by one of the 2MASS infrared telescopes, is located in the bright upper left portion of the image.
There is a supermassive black hole in the bright white area to the right of the center of this wide (scrollable) image. This composite photograph covers about half of a degree.
The Galactic Center of the Milky Way and a meteor
Composite labeled image.
